Whether you live in Duluth or just visit here, our breath-taking views over-looking the Twin Ports and Lake Superior are enjoyed by all, and balancing development with protecting what we love is nothing new here.

That’s happening with a new development that’s being planned at the base of Hawks Ridge.

A developer, Newhaven, LLC owns undeveloped plots of land near the top of 52nd Avenue East. The LLC has applied for the area to be rezoned from just residential to planned residential in order to build up to 30 homes and cottages and to have a 50% increase in the usual height restriction.

However a group of area residents are saying, not so fast.

“The density of it is just alarming,” Karen Armstrong told us. She lives in a quiet neighborhood near the top of 52nd Avenue East.

“The height of it is alarming too, considering that Hawks Ridge is just above it. People will be standing on Hawks Ridge looking right onto the rooflines of some of these 45 foot high buildings.”

There is active opposition to the project from the Hawks Ridge estates home owners association too. The organization’s vice president telling us that while they are not against development, they feel the size and scope of this proposed project does not fit at the base of Hawks Ridge.

Paula Tsufis told us, “Right now, our subdivision and most of the area around it has 2 to 3 homes per acre. This developer is looking to put up to like 8 to 10 cottages. They’ll be some high end homes. He wants a variance on the height from the normal thirty feet for residential homes up to potentially 45 feet. And it’s all being wedged in a little area adjacent to Skyline Drive, kind of at the top of Hot Ridge Estates. Then, there’s concerns about Amity Creek. I mean, the city has spent 20 years trying to clean it up, and this might really have a huge setback for that.”

Duluth city planning commission staff have given approval to the plan but an official public hearing must be held before the Duluth planning commission can make it’s recommendation to the full city council. That is likely to happen at the next planning commission meeting April 9th.

WDIO reached out to the developer, New Haven, LLC for comment but have not heard back as of this report.